Speed limits are set by drivers “voting with their feet.” That’s a problem for everyone else on the street.

Reader support makes our work possible. Donate today to keep our site free. All donations DOUBLED!

Sources:

NACTO | City Limits

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Los Angeles City Council | 2008 Speed Limit Report

Los Angeles Department of Transportation | 2018 Speed Limit Report

Brian Taylor and Yu Hong Hwang | Eighty-Five Percent Solution: Historical Look at Crowdsourcing Speed Limits and the Question of Safety

ITE | Speed Zoning Information A Case of “Majority Rule” 

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Hammond, et al. | Traffic Engineering and the Police

US Bureau of Public Roads | Accidents on Main Rural Highways, 1964

Research Triangle Institute | Speed and Accidents, Volume II

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety | Impact Speed and a Pedestrian’s Risk of Severe Injury or Death

US FHWA | Methods and Practices for Setting Speed Limits

Learn more:

Controlled case study on speed limits in Seattle

Background on California’s speed limit laws

“Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America” by Angie Schmitt

Strong Towns explainer on the 85th Percentile Rule on roads